An awesome day at FLBlogCon13!

Where do I even start?! Much like last year, I will have several posts about my day at FLBlogCon because there was just SO much information and I want to be able to share my experience as it should be shared. This first post will be my day in general.

Hubby joined me this year too! He has been blogging this past year (Paintballer4Life) and wanted to be a part of what I insisted would be a great time. We hit the road about 5:45am with a mandatory stop at Starbucks. The drive from Clearwater to Orlando was not bad at all.

We arrived at Full Sail University right at 8am and saw three of my blogging / running friends Kat, Xi, and Jessica walking in. Perfect timing! Yay Tampa Bay Bloggers! We met up with them and took the mandatory pictures that bloggers must take when they get-together. These ladies are so great – I look up to all of them.

I also finally got to meet the fabulous Katy Widrick. I first saw her at last year’s FLBlogCon when she was very pregnant with her adorable baby girl. Over the last year, I have followed her blog and participated in her February blogging challenge. (By the way, she’s having another challenge next month. OctoBlog. It’s a great chance to update and fine tune your blog…) I was excited to finally get to meet her. She is one of the nicest people and always willing to help. She is very passionate about everything she does.

I already had my schedule set ahead of time and knew what sessions I wanted to go. Some of these sessions I chose specifically because of the speakers that I saw last year and loved, and the other for the content.

I’ll do a separate post on the different sessions, and the opening keynote likely calls for it’s own post as it was so motivating and a great start to the day. Pat Williams, senior vice president of the Orlando Magic, is a great motivational speaker and his excitement filled the room.

The venue for this years FLBlogCon was Full Sail University in Winter Park. I feel that this location was much better suited for this conference. It’s a very hi-tech facility, outlets galore for charging your electronics, very easy to navigate, and the parking lot was right on campus.

Lunch was held out in the Back Lot area and although it was very warm in our wonderful Florida sun, it was a great setting. Bahama Breeze served lunch and it was so good! Shrimp and grits, green beans, salad, chips and salsa, and a fun drink called the Curly Tail.

In addition to the great blogging topics, the day was also very much about meeting other bloggers and networking. I saw a few I met last year and have since kept in touch with via the wonderful world of social media. I made new friends who I was already following, and met new bloggers to follow.

After all the sessions were over, there was a Ford After Party where there was more fabulous food to sample, thanks to Sysco and Gigi’s Cupcakes. By the way, the pumpkin cupcake was to die for. No shocker that I went for the pumpkin one!

The host of FLBlogCon, Bess Auer, is very passionate about blogging and she put on such a great event. Everyone involved was excited to share their knowledge with those who attended. Now that I am another year into blogging and my blog has grown so much this year, I feel like I took away much more information than I did last year. I can’t wait to put it to good use. Ever since I got home Saturday night, my brain has been in overdrive with everything I want to do.

If you are a blogger, or thinking about blogging, and have never been to a blogging conference, I strongly urge you to go. The information you will take away from the speakers and other bloggers is invaluable. I look forward to attending FLBlogCon next year!

Did you attend FLBlogCon this year? Or have you been to another blogging conference?

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9 Comments

Agreed! The conference was great. It’s been so long since I have had any professional development, I forgot how wonderful and exciting it is to learn, ask questions, and talk to different people who enjoy sharing their passion. Glad I found out about it! Maybe next year, Tampa Bay Bloggers can all schedule a meeting time.

This looks like SO much fun!! I really want to meet up with lots of people that I got to know during blogging. It’s definitely cool to just surround yourself with people who know what you’re doing and understand the whole blogging world. Thanks for sharing this lovely time with us!TJ Lubrano recently posted…Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

It looks like it was such a wonderful conference! I really wish I could have gone, but life got in the way. I pinned the OctoBlog challenge. What a great idea! Thanks for sharing!Run DMT recently posted…Music Monday: Summertime Sadness

I almost want to be jealous except I was at a different blogging conference for Fashion Week. Maybe next year if they aren’t on the same weekend I can attend this one. Can’t wait for you to share your other posts, hopefully I can learn something good. The agenda looked pretty good too. I see a few things I would love to have been in attendance for. Thanks for sharing, I’ll be on the lookout for the next one for sure!The Shoe Diva recently posted…Tampa Bay: Fashion Week September 2013

Hi there! I don’t think I got to meet you but I too really enjoyed the conference this year! Full Sail was the perfect venue for it and Bess and the planning team did an amazing job. The sponsors were also so generous and awesome!Yelle recently posted…AFR Tour 2013

[…] part in as well. It was a great time and I was able to do some tweaking on my blog. Just coming off FLBlogCon, my brain has been in overdrive and Katy’s timing is perfect. So, I am taking a step back from my […]